History Main / RuleOfCool

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'': Sousuke Sagara certainly has innovative methods to solve every situation. For example, when a guy wanted to blackmail Kaname by putting less-than-idolized pictures of her onto the internet, how did Sousuke stopped him? He unleashed a freakin' EMP blast and destroyed every piece of electronics in the school. Or a more radical example: when a Hind was chasing his HumongousMecha, how did he got rid of it? He threw Kaname high up into the air without warning to free up his mecha's hand, took out the Hind with a knife thrown into the cockpit then safely caught the screaming girl on her way down. As awesome as it was, it put even [[TheStoic Sousuke]] on edge - not because of any danger to her but because she's a {{Tsundere}} and he knows how she'll react once she wakes up from fright-induced unconsciousness.

* This is the basis of the Music/LemonDemon song, "The Music/UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny" (which inspired a [[http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/ well-known Flash video]]), in which Neil Cicierega describes a battle royale started by Franchise/{{Godzilla}} and Franchise/{{Batman}}. As the fight went on, more pop culture icons join in, including Shaquille O'Neal, Abraham Lincoln, [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Optimus Prime]], Creator/JackieChan, Franchise/IndianaJones, the Franchise/PowerRangers, Creator/ChuckNorris, [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]], Comicbook/{{Superman}}, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, and countless others:

* The reason for the existence of {{superhero}}es in general. ComicBook/{{Superman}} became Mr. NewPowersAsThePlotDemands during the forties and fifties because it fulfilled Rule of Cool for the target demographic. This is also the reason why ComicBook/{{Batman}} will always have a [[KingOfTheDinosaurs T. Rex]] and a giant penny in the Batcave even as he shifts between DarkerAndEdgier and LighterAndSofter. Damn near every superpower or fantastic element needs Rule of Cool to shield it from an onslaught of [[FridgeLogic logic-wielding refrigerators]], although a few hits will get through, usually aimed at Superman's [[ClarkKenting disguise]] or how ComicBook/SpiderMan can stick to surfaces.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' is, by the admission of [[Creator/JimButcher its author]], constructed out of this. When the main character magically blasts werewolves through walls, fights vampires alongside mob bosses, running into the middle of a [[TheFairFolk faerie]] {{apocalypse|How}}, [[spoiler:reanimating a ZOMBIE]] [[KingOfTheDinosaurs T-REX]] and PUNCHING OUT SANTA CLAUS (who is also [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin)]] you KNOW it's this trope.

* The ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'' BBC miniseries, a followup to the ''Walking with ___'' series, focuses on what life might be like millions of years in the future. It's got elements of evolutionary biology, but most of it is rule of cool all over.

* ''Webcomic/TheThrillingAdventuresOfLovelaceAndBabbage'': The premise is "wouldn't it be a lot cooler if Charles Babbage had completed his Difference Engine, then gone on {{Steampunk}} adventures with Ada Lovelace?" (He's an engineer, she's a mathematician, TheyFightCrime! And street music!)

** [[spoiler:Post-flipout, [[MonsterClown Gamzee Makara]] picks up the CrazyIsCool slack. His [[WeaponOfChoice Strife Specibus]] is Jokerkind. What kind of weapon does Jokerkind consist of? WHATEVER THE MOTHERFUCK HE WANTS. Including the [[InfinityPlusOneSword WARHAMMER OF ZILLYHOO]]. When he isn't brutally murdering people, he's {{Flash Step}}ping around, tricking people into gathering in one place so he can kill them more easily later, swapping items while people are holding them, generally [[HellIsThatNoise scaring the shit]] out of Karkat, and, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking apparently, kissing Tavros's severed head]]. Then there's the [[DecapitationPresentation MOTHERFUCKIN JURY]]]].

* ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents''. The game's plot revolves around an organization of TheMenInBlack and CoolShades who appear to help people out with their problems ''while dancing to pop songs''. Helping a white blood cell fight off a virus just in time for the Olympics to Ashlee Simpson's ''La La''? No problem. Assisting a coffee-addicted taxi driver in driving a pregnant woman to the hospital to the song ''Sk8er Boi''? That's nothing for the EBA. Helping a diver find treasure while ''YMCA'' is blaring in the background? That's not even trying! How do you save a down-on-his-luck baseball player? By helping him win his next game? No! Clearly, the solution is to help him save a small boy from a giant lava-spewing rock monster in an amusement park! ''With baseball!''

%%* All of ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''. A {{Meganekko}} [[HotLibrarian Porn Star Librarian]] / [[HotWitch Witch]] who [[GunFu uses high heel guns]] and an [[GodivaHair outfit made of her hair]] [[PrehensileHair she can use to attack with]]? Who fights [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] and can ''suplex fucking dragons''? What more can you ask for?

* ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' presents [[FilleFatale Lilith]], [[HornyDevils Morrigan's]] [[CloningBlues incomplete clone]]. Her [[LimitBreak super]] consists of using the same bats that [[VaporWear make up her clothes]] and sending all of them out in a whirlwind attack with the [[ClothingDamage usual]] [[SceneryCensor consequence]]. Her other unique super is her turning into a PlayboyBunny and tossing out a top hat which on contact, sets up a stage with the hapless enemy as the star, and playing a [[RhythmGame dancing mini-game]] that deals more damage to them the better you do. You also inflict them with more [[FireIceLightning elemental attacks]], and a perfect super can even be a OneHitKill FinishingMove.

* CoolPet

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* ''Film/TheWall'': This is a film based on a Music/PinkFloyd album, which is one of their most popular alongside ''Music/WishYouWereHere'' and ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon''.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs

* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': It's implausible and silly half the time, but it's about crazy scientists fighting '''[[TimeTravel time-traveling]] [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs DINOSAURS]]'''. The development team [[ShownTheirWork does their research]], but they don't apply it at all and instead take ArtisticLicenseBiology in heedless abandon. One episode even featured a [[RaptorAttack raptor]] chase through a shopping mall. On motorbikes.

->''"Welcome to downtown Coolsville! Population: Us!"''
-->-- '''Hogarth Hughes''', ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant''

* An in-story example appears in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'': Almost no-one (Woody being the exception) calls out Buzz Lightyear on his delusion about being a real space hero as opposed to a toy, because he's just that cool.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider'': Where else can you play as a daring female archaeologist that is packing heat as she fends off enemies from [[EverythingTryingToKillYou wolves, to henchmen, and even a freaking Tyrannosaurs Rex]] while performing acrobatics to either evade enemy attacks or to get from one place to another. Things get even crazier once Lara Croft gets on a vehicle and can run enemies over or make insane jumps over a chasm. Even the traps are taken to the extreme, such as poison darts, rolling boulders, spikes, fire traps, and many more as the series progressed, yet they still remained awesome.
* The trope is lampshaded by the developers in the remake ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary'' when they discuss the Uzi wielding teenager. In the original game, the kid was fought in what appeared to be an underground skateboard park and he fought Lara by shooting at her ''while he was skateboarding'' (the area had a ton of pits with lava in them in case you weren't in enough danger) and giving the line "You firing at me? You firing at me? There's no one else here so you must be firing at me!" The developers admitted that looking back on the level design for the boss fight now, it looked pretty damn silly, but at the same time, it was too cool.

* A [[http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/9/70/5356c8b5d43db.jpg drawing]] of Colbert as the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk stabbing a bear through the head with the American flag.

* The [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer RedAlertSeries Red Alert series]] of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' games runs on pure cool (ok, maybe some {{camp}} too). A lot of units are there mostly based on sheer cool factor:

* NiceHat

* ''LightNovel/NinjaSlayer''. Everything and [[WorldOfHam everyone]] is so over the top that it has to be seen to be believed. Just think "American 80s and 90s ninja movies" meets ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'', and ''then'' turned UpToEleven.

** [[ImplacableMan Roberta]] takes this trope UpToEleven, being a nigh unstoppable ShoutOut to the {{Franchise/Terminator}} capable of surviving being squished into a shipping container by a multi-tonne muscle car and [[DrivesLikeCrazy driving in a way]] that would make [[Manga/AzumangaDaioh Mrs. Yukari]] proud... all without anything more than a crack in her ScaryShinyGlasses! Then, she engages Revy in a gunfight that somehow leads to explosions and electric arcs flashing above the shipping containers they're fighting among!

** Vegito is even more ridiculous, while overpowered on his own, even by the show's standards, he takes it UpToEleven when he manages to deal humiliating damage to Buu after being turned into a chocolate jawbreaker, noting that normally one can't move or think, let alone speak well enough to taunt Buu some more.

*** Kid Buu takes this trope UpToEleven. Being completely unrestrained in battle; his fighting involves BeamSpam while using SelfDuplication stretching his limbs to extreme lengths and even taking time to whistle or beat his chest in midst battle. And unlike most villains who are ArrogantKungFuGuy UpToEleven, Kid Buu is too crazy to care about ego and how to attack.
** Broly, being a massive BreakoutCharacter, who is a Super Saiyan BloodKnight UpToEleven who uses sheer SuperStrength, and not any fancy moves to make the Z Fighters look like amateurs for most of the fight
** Janemba, who releases all the denizens of Hell at one point, while turning the Afterlife into a jelly bean dimension, creating a clone of Goku to counter the Kamehameha technique, a bunch of clones and control of inter dimensional portals to launch attacks. After going OneWingedAngel, he takes it UpToEleven by enhancing his dimensional portals to teleportation, beats a Super Saiyan 3 Goku, a feat that the aforementioned Kid Buu couldn't pull off and has a sword that '''cuts through dimensions from the swipes of the sword'''

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' basically runs on this trope, since a lot of it's plot elements don't make much sense but were really awesome on the other side. The [[Manga/PhantomBlood first part]] alone is about a man using a mysterious martial art [[ThePowerOfTheSun that draws its power from the sun]] to fight [[CainAndAbel his evil adoptive brother]] [[EvilMask who used a stone mask]] that, [[ThePowerOfBlood when drenched in blood]], grows thorns and actives acunputure points in the brain of its wearer, [[TranshumanTreachery turning him]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent into a vampire]]. And that's ''[[UpToEleven the most normal part]]'' of the eight.

* ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' as well as the director's previous films, ''Film/NightWatch'' and ''Film/DayWatch'', where things exist for no other reason than because they're cool. Example: Let's drive a car across a building. Why? Why not? You get the feeling that when they were thinking of the concept for this movie, someone said, "What would happen if you took all the cool stunts from ''Film/TheMatrix'', and turned them UpToEleven?"

* [[Series/KamenRiderDenO The Owner of the Den-Liner.]] To specify, he has a habit of eating plates of food while trying to avoid tipping over a small flag in the center...but he a gun that shoots a barrage of these flags as sleeping darts used to knock out an entire room full of people in seconds? Using one of these flags to take down a forcefield? Running along side a time traveling bullet train that's going at full speed? Using a normal everyday bicycle to POWER said time traveling bullet train with his own leg power brings this trope UpToEleven!

** Another song is about "superstars sucked into the supermassive", with huge riffs and piano's that would make an appropriate soundtrack to [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante's Inferno]]. Oh, and the live shows are truly awesomely epic, with extended improvised jams and the theatricality turned UpToEleven. ThePowerOfRock, indeed.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': Adventure Mode takes it UpToEleven...even the ''rules'' are crazy, such as ''armour-piercing throwing sand'' and the use of ''entire skeletons'' as melee weapons.

** ''VideoGame/TalesOfRebirth'' has Tytree Crowe. Imagine [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina]] with the happiness, optimism and HotBlooded-ness turned UpToEleven, meaning that he never gets depressed and is the only character who has the balls required to give Veigue a much-needed WhatTheHellHero speech. And if that still doesn't convince you, then bare his fighting style in mind: martial arts in conjunction with an ''arm-mounted crossbow''. ''And'' one of his [[LimitBreak Mystic Artes]] involves him turning his crossbow into a big WaveMotionGun of lightning.

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[[folder:Fan Works]]

* This serves as the physics engine for the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' universe, it seems. The core basis of the series' gameplay is beating shit up and making it look good. Several of the cutscenes, concepts and {{Impossibly Cool Weapon}}s are impractically over-the-top purely for raw awesome factor. We have Dante rocking on with a literal electric guitar, and Lady's motorcycle having flamethrower attachments in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening, Nero's sword revving like a motorcycle in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', then Dante also comes back fighting demons by ''swinging a motorcycle'' around in the latter game. This also applies at a meta-level, as Creator/HidekiKamiya was inspired to include the juggle mechanic in the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 original game]] due to a bug that caused enemies to float in the early versions of ''VideoGame/OnimushaWarlords''.

* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Gungrave}}'' if a boss comes close to dying, then using a demolition shot as the killing blow causes Grave to activate the "Graveyard Special" (FinishingMove), where his coffin launches a super-charged attack (which usually combines two or more his normal demolition shots). While this is not required to kill any boss, the demolition shot is so over the top that it looks awesome. [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Your player character is the reanimated corpse of a hitman with Guns Akimbo and a large coffin on his back that shoots rockets and can semi-morph into a machine gun]]. In the sequel, the original character gains allies. One is a blind samurai with [[GunBlade swords that are also guns]], and a ghost who uses a guitar with a dynamo in it to shoot arc lightning at his enemies. The ghost who defeats his enemies with ''ThePowerOfRock'' is named [[AwesomeMcCoolname Rockabilly Redcadillac]].